Very Cool!!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Screwball. Deft. Not an unpleasant bone in its body, even when it dips into human frailties. One of those comedies that feels as if everybody got everything right, as in just what they were looking for. Wonderful character actors at work. Without them, it would have been insipidly corny. O'Toole as an Errol Flynn type is just about perfect. Excellent music choices.

Here's a bit of worthless trivia--the movie was shot to be displayed at 1:85, a little wider than the inexplicable decision to create a widescreen TV image of 1:77.But the first laserdiscs early 1980's, those 33 1/3 sized 12 inch platinum platters? released the movie in 1:33 ratio. You'd say so what, that is what pan and scan were able to sidestep, movement of the camera to cover the truncated side areas to fit into a 1:33 frame.NOT pan and scan. Not. This is one time the studio could ADD visual material top and bottom, and create a pan and scan sized image but where there is actually MORE visual information than in the widescreen versions.Actually, the safe areas where on top and bottom of the frame, you're supposed to place equipment,mikes and lights and such, and never fear them showing up in the movie,were missing sufficiently so that in order to produce 1:33, they merely ADDED material bottom and top, rather than have to truncate material on the sides. Yup, this is one of those movies (Black Rain 1989) wherewhat looks to be pan and scan is actually full frame in the truest sense.Some may remember movies in the 1950's were shot to be shown on widescreen 1:85 as well as academy 1:33 ratio, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 on purpose, because not many screens has converted to widescreen yet. Both My Favorite Year and Black Rain seem to be throwbacks to that earlier practice, only this time the target audience may have been folks with normal TV sets of the times, at 1:33. For by the 1980's, 1:33 aspect ratio movie screens had all been replaced.Like mint marks on a coin, the two versions of one film make for startlingly different viewing experiences.How different? That, as they say, is another story.

First Errol Flynn was the consummate Hollywood action hero, and then he was the consummate Hollywood has-been. The substance abuse, the wrecked relationships, the legal scandals; by the end of his life he was a guy who needed a lot of rehabilitating. "My Favorite Year" is a posthumous rehabilitation of Flynn, and it is also a sweet and funny tall tale about what his redemption might have looked like had it happened during his lifetime. Flynn's actual appearance on the 1950s variety show where Mel Brooks was a young writer came and went without incident, but in "My Favorite Year" that forgettable television moment is reimagined as one huge, crazy, boozy incident worthy of Peter O'Toole in his hellraising days. O'Toole infuses all of Flynn stand-in "Alan Swann"'s lines, every flourish of his hands, every drunken stagger, with a precise mixture of charm and pain.The story is mostly a buddy comedy of the sort that thrives on the emotional closeness of its characters. Maybe a supremely irresponsible person like Swann, whose insecurities cause him to limit his relationships to the categories of one-night stands and autograph sessions, wouldn't really tolerate the presence of a straight-laced worrywart like the Mel Brooks stand-in for days and nights on end. But in the movies, opposites attract, and here they make a good pair. The young writer gets to meet his hero, and although Swann is a case in point of why it's not always best to do that, the movie argues that the hero is always there, in a way, inside the less-than-heroic has- been. Swann is self-destructive, yes, but with each new failure comes a chance for one more last hurrah, one more horse to jump on and ride into the sunset, one more crowd to win over. O'Toole is heartbreaking when he shows Swann's weakness and vulnerability, and this makes each new triumph, however modest, all the more inspiring. At the high points, the young writer is the necessary sidekick, a witness to a performance that exists solely to be seen and applauded, and when the cycle returns to darkness and doubt he is the hero's conscience. It's an old formula, but it works.Between the party-crashing, horse-stealing vignettes, there is a by-the- book romance storyline and an organized crime farce. Both are simple fare, but they do a lot to raise the stakes of Swann's television appearance and to set an amiable atmosphere through a vibrant supporting cast and obvious but endearing jokes and set- pieces. The movie's various threads all crash together in a big finish that is predictable, and not believable, but very satisfying, entertaining, and moving—not unlike a great Errol Flynn movie.Replete with tributes to Flynn's filmography, "My Favorite Year" is a must-see for fans of the Australian-born swashbuckler. "Captain Blood," "Dodge City," and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" are repeatedly and lovingly referenced, under thinly-disguised alternate titles, and the iconic scene from the ending of "Robin Hood" is recreated in astonishing detail, complete with a Basil Rathbone lookalike.

Although Peter O'Toole is unquestionably the star of "My Favorite Year" in the part of an aging film star, whose major preoccupations are having sex with beautiful young women and getting roaring drunk, he's not the only actor to acquit himself well in this film. Joseph Bologna as King Kaiser, a TV comedian, imitates Sid Caesar with considerable success, Mark Linn-Baker is very good as a junior writer on the show assigned to make sure that Alan Swann (O'Toole's character modeled on Errol Flynn) is actually on hand when the show is broadcast, and Jessica Baker is charming as the young writer's love interest. But O'Toole dominates the comedy just as he dominated his best known dramatic films, and he is hilarious, reminding us that his star, when at its brightest, shown brilliantly not alone because he was physically beautiful but because the guy could really act. His imitation of a drunk is priceless, even though, in fact, O'Toole unfortunately had a good deal of experience to go with his acting talent on this particular matter.